Olympian Struggle"I don't see
why, after all the money that Greek taxpayers will end up
paying to host the games, McDonald's should dictate what I
can eat in my own city." ... "Staff will also be on the
lookout for T-shirts, hats and bags displaying the
unwelcome logos of non-sponsors. Stewards have been trained
to detect people who may be wearing merchandise from the
sponsors' rivals in the hope of catching the eyes of
television audiences. Those arousing suspicion will be
required to wear their T-shirts inside out." By Mark
Franchetti, Halifax Herald, August 9, 2004
[Refer][Research][Reflect]

Open-Media.orgMarc Canter opens
the doors a bit on an initiative intened to foster the
development of an open content network, an idea dear to my
own heart. The centerpiece is a large diagram. Many nuts
and bolts are still required. By Marc canter, Marc's Voice,
August 9, 2004
[Refer][Research][Reflect]

Mind: In Search of Pattern
RecognitionInteresting item about pattern
recognition with an overt attempt to apply the practice
with respect to lifestyle choice. "Information overload,"
wrote McLuhan, "is an opportunity for pattern recognition."
This is what I do in this work or elsewhere - I immerse
myself in the medium and swim where I find currents. People
have in the past criticized me for over generalizing - what
they miss is that I am not generalizing at all, I don't
believe in generalizations, I am simply sketching a pattern
in the flow. Read this too. By Brian Alger, Experience
Design Network, August 4, 2004
[Refer][Research][Reflect]

Virtual Worlds are Real
WorldsRaction to an article in the Guardian
about online worlds titled Get a Life. The author's point is simple,
and one with which I am in agreement: virtual world are
real. They are just as real, in fact, as the 'real world'.
Like the author, I am more than a digital immigrant - I
can't say I am a digital native, since the online world
didn't exist when I was a child, but I grew up with the
digital age, playing Pong when it came out, playing
Adventure online, and more. I can say the virtual world is
real because, like the author, I live in it. "The cool
thing is that in the virtual world, I have lots of new
friends from all over the world, offering me all sorts of
perspectives that I wouldn’t otherwise have access to, and
vice versa. Who can say that’s a bad thing?" By Lisa
Galarneau, Relevancy, August 10, 2004
[Refer][Research][Reflect]

Expertise Finders: Pollard Goes Looking for
AnswersGeorge Siemens points to this item by
Dave Pollard in which he asks, "How can we ever hope to
produce effective Expertise Finders when we can't even get
people in our own organizations to keep their personal
information up to date?" It's what I try to convince people
of in my own projects, that input is critical, and
everything else is gravy. Right now the most effective
input system is the blog, and Pollard writes, "I envisioned
an Expertise Finder that would work by crawling people's
blog content, penetrating corporate firewalls to find the
best people in the world who had the desired expertise and
creating a 'map' showing the most direct network path to
those people and how much their expertise costs." By Dave
Pollard, How to Save the World, Augut 6, 2004
[Refer][Research][Reflect]